Dracula A.D. 1972 (1972)
Directed by Alan Gibson
Screenplay by Don Houghton
Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee back together again, 1972 style. Yeah, I'm willing to pay my Hammer tax and watch this film based on that alone. You know there'll be an obligatory Seventies party scene with some funky music. And maybe Dracula will drive around in a Trans Am.
Okay, so this film starts out in 1872 with Lawrence Van Helsing locked in a deathmatch with Count Dracula on top of a speeding carriage. After the carriage crashes Dracula is caught on a spoke and unfortunately nobody has a "jaws of death" to unimpale him. Van Helsing finishes the job and then dies of his own injuries. And thus the shortest of the Hammer Dracula films draws to a conclusion.
But wait, Dracula has an acolyte--a Dracolyte--who gathers up his remains and secretly buries them at St. Bartolph's Church where Van Helsing is also buried.
And now the story skips ahead by a hundred years. It's 1972 and the fashions are atrocious and nobody really cares because all the cool kids are high as kites that have been put into carry-on luggage and flown to Lisbon. If you've been paying attention (and in 1972 some people may not have been) you'd notice that young Johnny Alucard looks a lot like that Dracolyte who buried Dracula back in 1872. And we see that Lorrimer Van Helsing looks just like his ancestor Lawrence. Weird how genetics works like that. Lucky for her and us Jessica Van Helsing looks nothing like a female Peter Cushing. And I'm pretty sure that even someone who's really high would eventually roll to the fact that Alucard is Dracula spelled backwards. Nobody is really named Alucard. There's only one reason anybody has ever had the name Alucard is because they're trying to be coy about Dracula. If you have a "friend" named Johnny Alucard, he's not your friend. He's a vampire or a vampire wannabe.
And then there's the obligatory party scene featuring the band Stoneground. Heck of a party, isn't it? Really gives you a feel for London in 1972, doesn't it? Now imagine Margaret Thatcher at that party. Now imagine her at that party dressed only in a garland of lilies. Now imagine your dad showing up to that party in an orange sportcoat and yellow and brown plaid pants. That's 1972 in London. Vampires are the least of your problems.
So, simple hippy parties aren't quite exciting enough and thus the young generation turns to black magic for fun. And what better place for some Satanic fun in London than a wrecked old church (St. Bartolph's, naturally.) where you might be able to resurrect Count Dracula and give him a special rebirthday present of one of your "friends." Another piece of advice: friends don't feed friends to their vampire overlords.
The film seems to meander between feeling like it's Beyond the Valley of the Dolls and an episode of the British version of Kojak. I think I just described what the original Kolchak: The Night Stalker was like. Seriously, what kind of self respecting vampire would want to drink someone whose blood reeks of polyester, cocaine and patchouli?
Here's another question: why did the Dracolytes wait a hundred years before trying to bring back Dracula? Were they just too busy with the two world wars to bother unleashing the master of vampires? Was 1972 all that great of a year? Or is it just that the Dracolytes had to be so bored by everything else that they decide to resurrect Dracula the way some bored people decide to go out and buy some cole slaw just to get some fresh air?
In this incarnation Dracula has some serious score settling in mind with Van Helsing. That's why it's really convenient for him that Van Helsing's granddaughter Jessica is hanging out with a hard partying crowd of vampire bait. In 1972 Dracula has an elaborate plan of corrupting Jessica by turning her into his vampire companion. (The ultimate insult of rendering the vampire killer's progeny tainted by vampirism. Yes, it's an analogy for sexual purity. What did you think it was?)
But in the grand tradition of Bond villains Dracula spends too much time dragging his eternally cold feet instead of proceeding with his evil plan.
Van Helsing tracks down Johnny Alucard and kills him the way you would expect to kill a dirty hippy--with a cold shower. Yeah, I said it. Seventies hipster killed by bathing.
Dracula's death by booby trap is a perfect Vietnam era death. The only way it could have been more perfect would have been if Van Helsing had dipped the stakes in feces. Not because it would be more lethal for Dracula, but because it would have been the right level of insult. But that's not Van Helsing's style. He does not lack elegance.
As for Jessica, she is saved from the evil vampire who puts her under his spell and turns her into a mindless minion. In short, she is saved from being a trophy wife married to a jerk who really only wants her in order to punish someone else and so that he can sully her with his touch.
Jessica is also saved from a group of friends who are easily lured by their inquisitiveness/boredom into doing stupid evil things. (Manson Family, anyone?) And she also gets a clean break from her boyfriend who is drained of his blood. How about that for a breakup story? "Yeah, my last boyfriend was killed by a vampire...as were most of my other friends. So, who's up for some tea and sandwiches?"
There's something to be said for the choice of putting a vampire (and especially Dracula, THE vampire) in a contemporary setting. But there's also something to be said for the Victorian Gothic setting. It's apples and oranges in vampire films. I can't help but feel that one of the flavors that makes the Dracula story is the period setting, but I also enjoy the idea of contemporizing the story. Maybe I'd be less ambivalent if it hadn't been set in 1972.
I'll say this, at least there's no real sympathizing with the monster in this film. Dracula is actively in league with evil and his minions not only ally themselves with Satan and Dracula but also commit wanton murder and use the bonds of friendship to lure people to their deaths. This is a vampire you don't mind seeing destroyed in a pit of death for the undead.
Cast
Count Dracula -- Christopher Lee
Lawrence Van Helsing/Lorrimer Van Helsing -- Peter Cushing
Jessica Van Helsing -- Stephanie Beacham
Johnny Alucard -- Christopher Neame
Gaynor Keating -- Marsha Hunt
Laura Bellows -- Caroline Munro
Anna Bryant -- Janet Key
Joe Mitcham -- William Ellis
Bob -- Philip Miller
Greg -- Michael Kitchen
Matron Party Hostess -- Lally Bowers
Charles -- Michael Daly
Crying Matron -- Jo Richardson
Hippy Girl -- Penny Brahms
Hippy Boy -- Brian John Smith
Go Go Dancer -- Flanagan (Maureen Flanagan)
Girl -- Glenda Allen
Boy -- Christopher Morris
Debby Girl -- Jane Anthony
Mrs. Donnelly -- Constance Luttrell
Inspector Murray -- Michael Coles
Detective Sergeant -- David Andrews
Police Surgeon -- Artro Morris
Stoneground -- Stoneground (Tim Barnes, Sal Valentino, John Blakely, Brian Godula, Lynne Hughes, Deirdre La Porte, Cory Lerios, Lydia Mareno, Steve Price, Annie Sampson)
Music by Mike Vickers
Cinematography by Dick Bush
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